Cash register



April 24, 1934.

C. G. FALKNER CASH REGISTER Filed June 17, 1951 Carl C. Fllkncr Patented Apr. 24, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CASH REGISTER Application June 17, 1931, Serial No. 545,046

3 Claims.

This invention relates to cash registers and the like, but more particularly to the type of register that employs a series of setting elements which may be moved to different positions for the selection of amounts and transactions to be registered and recorded. Registers of this type are shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States, Nos. 751,611 and 773,053, issued to Thomas Carroll, February 9, 1904 and October 25, 1904, respectively, and No. 1,360,151, issued to Bernis M. Shipley, November 23, 1920.

An object of this invention is to provide means for preventing the release of the machine for operation when the amount and transaction setting levers are improperly located and aligned.

With this and incidental objects in view, the invention includes certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, the essential elements of which are set forth in appended claims and a preferred form or embodiment of which is hereinafter described with reference to the drawing which accompanies and forms a part of this specification.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a side elevation illustrating in detail the parts comprising the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows, in reduced scale, the motor clutch release mechanism.

Fig. 4 is a detail view of the aliner plunger.

General description Described in general terms, the machine to 0 which the present invention is applied includes an electric driving means for operating the main cam line, a release lever for coupling the driving means to the main cam line, and a plurality of manipulative devices, such as pivoted setting levers for setting up amounts and transactions. These manipulative devices cooperate with reciprocating differential racks, which in turn operate mechanism whereby the amounts and tran actions commensurate with the position of the setting levers are registered and recorded.

Each differential rack has an aligning plate with a series of angular aligning notches arranged to cooperate with a springpushed aligning plunger for locating and locking the racks and setting levers in selected positions.

Due to misadjustment of the setting levers or wearing of the aligning mechanism it is possible for said setting levers to be moved to a position where the aligning plungers remain on the apex formed by adjacent aligning notches rather than in the proper notch. Operation of the machine with the aligners thus misplaced will cause an erroneous registration and subject the mechanism of the machine to severe strain and possible damage.

It is the object of the present invention to prevent the possibility of such an occurrence as outlined above, by providing means for locking the machine against operation when the aligning plungers are not properly seated in the aligning notches.

A detailed description of the mechanism comprising this invention will now be given.

Deiailed description Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a setting lever 10 is secured to a toothed sector 11 free on a shaft 12 supported by two main frames 13, one of which is shown in Fig. 2. The teeth of the sector 11 are adapted to mesh with teeth on a rack bar 14 mounted to reciprocate vertically in slots formed in cross bars 15 (only one of which is here shown). Fast on the rack bar 14 is an alining plate 1'7 with a series of angular alining notches 18 arranged to cooperate with an aliner 20 slidably mounted in the channel bar 15. The aliner 20 is prevented from rotating by a flatted surface (Fig. 4), thereon cooperating with the side of the rack 14. A compression spring 21 loosely wound around the aliner 20 is tensioned to hold said aliner constantly in contact with the alining plate 17.

Secured to a shaft 22 is an arm 23, having therein a set screw 24 with a locking nut 25, said set screw being arranged to cooperate with the end of the aliner 20. Fast on the shaft 22 is a lever 26 having in its upper arm a stud 27 arranged to cooperate with the periphery of a disk 28, having therein a notch 30 which is located adjacent the stud 27 when the machine is in its home position. The disk 28 is fast on a main cam shaft 31, journaled in the main frames of the machine and operatively connected to an electric driving means (not shown).

There is one such lever 10, sector 11, rack 14, aliner 20, arm 23, and set screw 24, for each amount bank, and similar parts for the transaction bank. As these banks are duplicates of each other and operate in a similar manner, it is thought that in this instance the explanation of one unit will be sufficient. However, reference may be had to the Carroll and Shipley patents, referred to at the beginning of this specification, for a more thorough description of this type of lever-set register.

The lever and rack 14 are adjustable to the several positions comprising a denominational unit, there being a notch 18 for each position of the lever 10 and rack 14. The aliner 2O cooperates with said notches 18 to properly locate the setting lever and rack in any selected position. Moving the setting lever 16 from one position to another, through the aliner 20, set screw 24, arm 23 and shaft 22 oscillates the arm 26, the notch in the disk 28 providing the necessary clearance for the stud 27.

The disk 28 makes a complete rotation in a clockwise direction each time the machine is operated, the periphery of said disk cooperating with the stud 27 to force the aliner 20 home in one of the notches 18 to locate and lock the lever 10 and rack 14 in the selected position to prevent moving them during the operation of the machine.

The lower arm of the lever 26 carries a stud 32 extending through a diagonal cam slot 33 in one arm of a bell crank 34 pivoted on a shaft 35. Another arm of the bell crank 34 has pivoted thereto one end of a link 36, the other end of said link having therein a slot which embraces a stud 37 fast in an arm 38 of a motor release key 40 secured to a shaft 41. A spring 42 is tensioned to retain the free end of the arm 38 against a stop stud 43 fast in the frame 13. (See Fig. 2.)

Also fast on the shaft 41 is an arm 44 having a slot into which projects a stud 45 in a clutch release arm 46 loose on the shaft 12. A flattened stud 47 fast in the arm 46 cooperates with a trip arm 50 pivoted on a shaft 51. Secured to the trip arm 50 is an arm 52 bifurcated to embrace a stud 53 in a locking lever 54 normally in the path of a retaining plate 55 on a clutch disk 56 forming a part of the driven member of a motor clutch mechanism, such as that shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States, No. 1,144,418, issued to C. F. Kettering and W. A. Chryst on June 29, 1915. This mechanism shown in Fig. 3 is substantially the same as that shown in the United States Patent, No. 1,761,572, granted to W. Kropff on June 3, 1930, and the patent to W. H. Robertson, No. 1,786,454, granted December 30, 1930.

The locking lever 54 is pivoted on a stud 60, upon which also pivots a restoring lever 61 which is connected to the locking lever 54 by the stud 53. The restoring lever 61 is operated, in a manner to be hereinafter described, by a pin 62 carried by a gear 63 secured to the driving clutch.

Depression of the release key 40 rocks the shaft 41, which, through the stud 45, rocks the arm 46 counter-clockwise until the stud 47 passes above a projection 65 of the trip arm 50, whereupon a spring 66 rocks the restoring arm 61, and consequently the locking lever 54, clockwise, removing the latter from the path of the locking plate 55, whereupon the motor shown in the above mentioned Kettering and Chryst patent, through the driven clutch disk 56 operates the main operating shaft 31 one complete rotation for each operation of the machine. The trip arm 50 carries a non-repeat pawl 67 which functions in the usual manner.

Near the end of the operation of the shaft 31 the pin 62 by its contact with the restoring lever 61, the latter having been moved into the path thereof by the spring 66, rocks said lever counter-clockwise, thus moving the locking lever 54 again into the path of the locking plate 55 to stop the rotation of the shaft 31 after it has completed one cycle of movement.

If due to failure to properly adjust the hand lever 10, or due to the wearing of the alining parts, the aliner 20 was left in a position where the point of its alining tooth remained upon the apex formed by adjacent alining notches and the machine operated, the result would be excessive straining and possible damage to the mechanism of the machine.

The condition mentioned above would be quickly detected in a hand-operated machine by the increased energy required to turn the operating crank and the operator could then remedy the condition by properly adjusting the setting lever 10. However, this would not apply to an electrically-operated machine where all that is required to place the machine in operation is the depression of the release key. Therefore, it is necessary to provide means for locking the machine against operation when the setting levers are not properly adjusted.

As before stated, the moving of the hand lever 10 from one position to another causes the angular alining notches 18 to cam the aliners 20 to the right (Fig. 1), until the apex formed by two adjoining alining notches passes the pointed tooth of the aliner 20. The spring 21 then presses the aliner into the succeeding notch, and so on.

The right-hand movement of the aliner 20 through the screw 24 and the arm 23 rocks the shaft 22 and the lever 26 counter-clockwise to move the bell crank 34 counter-clockwise, thus causing the link 36 to block the counter-clockwise movement of the release key 40 when said aliner 20 is resting on the apex formed by adjoining notches 18.

The blocking of the motor key 40 prevents releasing the machine for operation when the aliner 20 is not properly located in one of the alining notches 18 and calls the attention of the operator to the fact that the setting lever 10 is not properly adjusted. This overcomes the danger of straining and damaging the mechanism of the machine that would result from an operation thereof under such conditions.

While the form of mechanism herein shown and described is admirably adapted to fulfill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understood 5 that it is not intended to confine the invention to the one form or embodiment herein disclosed, for it is susceptible of embodiment in various forms all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:

1. In a lever-set cash register, the combination of a depressible machine release key; an adjustable hand lever; a differentially positioned rack controlled by said hand lever; an alining plate on said rack having a series of angular notches corresponding to the several positions on said rack; an alining plunger adapted to cooperate with said notches to locate the rack in any selected position; and means including an arm, a lever, a bell crank and a link, operated by the alining plunger for locking the release key against depression when the rack is out of alinement.

2. In a machine of the class described, the comv bination of a machine releasing means including a rockable member; a differentially adjustable device; means for alining the device in any of its positions of adjustment; a slidable member connected to said rockable member and normally 15 connections intermediate the movable member and the releasing means and including a link adjustably connected to the releasing means; and a lever cooperating with the movable member, said link being normally in a position to enable a free movement of the releasing means and being held in this position during an operation of the machine upon movement of the movable member by the main operating mechanism.

CARL GEORGE FALKNER. 

